Where can I get traffic violation data that I can legally use for analysis?

Question

I want to analyze a number of violations(speeding tickets). These are the parts of the data which are important to me:
-date of violation
-amount charged
-speed
-speed limit

I know I can get this from here(for virginia):
http://www.courts.state.va.us/caseinfo/tickets.html
but I am not sure if I can legal scrape the data and use it for analysis.

any suggestions would be fantastic

Answer 1

If it is posted on the Internet where anyone can access it then you can use the information, as long as you don't attach any names or personal identification information; it just becomes statistics.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office would be the best people to ask if there would be any legal problems working with the data.

To be sure about this I would contact the Office of the Public Prosecutor for the Traffic Court and tell them what you are doing. They may be able to help you, maybe let you come in and view some records at their office. I assume this is a school project or something similar. Be complementary to these hard working people, if you are interested in what they do they will be more open to you. Traffic court isn’t very high profile so they probably don’t get many calls from interested people.

Explain your project to them, and ask if there would be any legal problems involved. Of course once you finish with them you need to show them your final work. Ideally before you publish it. Don’t abuse their trust tell them the truth. If you plan on writing a magazine or newspaper article then you need to make that clear. It is common courtesy to give them a copy of your work before you publish it. It is excellent courtesy to give them final approval, and they will appreciate it. If you plan on doing anything in the legal profession then ever again then this would be something good to have on your records, and if you abuse this people word of this could get around. After all the legal profession is a profession that demands high morals, and a high level of trust.

Answer 2

get your DL record